Living Quarters
Contributed by Larry D. Whitten
A close up of the bubble and the fire warden`s watch room on the tower. [Ed. note: notice that the tower is four-legged, unlike most GFA towers] The fire warden was there from late April - early May until the first part of November. He was usually out of there before the first snow fell. He had a cabin about a mile down the mountain from the site. That was where he lived all summer long. He would walk up the mountain every day, climb the tower and watch for fires. He had a water well and a fairly nice cabin to stay in. Occasionally, his wife would come out, bring him some supplies and stay for a couple of days. I can`t remember his name but he was a middle aged fellow.
This 1966 picture of the Sno Cat also shows the trailer we stayed in while we were at the site. It had a gas cook stove & 3 cots. We carried a couple of 5 gallon plastic jugs of water to cook with. We washed the dishes and ourselves with melted snow during the winter and got water from the fire warden`s cabin in the summer. All the way to the left of the picutre was our mountain side latrine. It sat on the edge of a cliff and leaned against two trees. When the wind got to blowing pretty strong, you had to be careful and not stay to long, or you`d be rocked to sleep. It was a one holer, and we kept a plastic garbage bag taped to the hole. When the bag was full, we pulled the tape and away it fell, down the side of the cliff. The little boy in front of the Sno Cat is my son. Once in a while, when we had to go out on a weekend for just a day, I`d take my family with me and we`d have sort of a picnic. He is now retired from the USAF with 20 years and has a family of his own.